1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to an improved data processing system, and more specifically to managing and reconciling information technology assets in a configuration management database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework of best practice approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality information technology (IT) services. In order to facilitate the integration and automation of ITIL best practices, ITIL specifies the use of CMDB (Configuration Management Database) to leverage a single source of information. A CMDB is a unified or federated repository of information related to all the components of an information system. The IBM Tivoli® CMDB, for example, is a fundamental software component that provides a specific level of data integration across Tivoli products. One of the primary goals for a CMDB is to provide support for configuration items (or resources) as defined by the ITIL. Chapter 7 of the ITIL Service and Support specification, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, gives the details of this support.
Configuration management is a critical process responsible for identifying, controlling and tracking all versions of hardware, software, documentation, and other inanimate components of a configurable managed environment, such as an Information Technology organization. The goal of configuration management is to ensure that only authorized components, referred to as resources, are used in the configurable managed environment, and that all changes to resources are recorded and tracked throughout the life cycle of the component. The configuration management process includes performing tasks such as identifying configuration items and their relationships, and adding them to the CMDB. The CMDB may comprise all relevant details for each configuration item, such as relationships between resources, state or status, and historical information. Some examples of configuration items are computer system, application server, operating system, software installation, etc.
The CMDB nominally contains the latest information of the above type for all resources, such as the states and relationships thereof. In a configurable managed environment, as events occur that change the states or relationships of respective resources, the CMDB must be synchronized accordingly. That is, the CMDB must be updated, so that the data contained therein will reflect the changes. However, in a configurable managed environment of the above type, multiple resource management products are commonly used to identify resources in the IT enterprise. Each product may maintain its own separate data that is related to the set of resources it manages, and each product may comprise its own set of naming rules for naming or identifying a resource. As the products may comprise different naming rules, these products may also identify the same resource differently in many cases. As a result of the CMDB receiving resource identity data from various resource management products that identify the same resource differently, resource identity data is frequently duplicated in a CMDB, both logically and physically.